Anybody remember the Leon Spinks-Jesse Burnett fight

William, the first thing I did when I saw your post is check youtube. I had given up hope that this fight was ever going to get uploaded. I saw it live (on TV) when it took place and at that time I thought Burnett was robbed. So now at least I can sit down with pen to paper and see if my opinion then holds up. I was a fan of Burnett's back then so now I can look at this more impartially. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

 

Fight was a good one for sure. Leon sure was in some great fights. I just rewatched his fight with Eddie the Animal Lopez recently which is one of the best heavyweight wars you will ever see. Leon had so much heart.

 

I scored it yesterday. Had it 8-4 Burnett. Great, great fight!

 

I thought Leon won back then and still do today.

 

Leon faded badly in the mid to late rounds but came roaring back to win the 10th. Lopez was a tough dude that gave Tate all he could handle. I really wish Leon would have dedicated himself more when he trained and stayed clean. He had natural endurance and toughness that had he trained properly he could have gotten so much more out of his career. With that said, Olympic Gold and the lineal Championship was pretty danm good. One of my favorite fighters and without question the nicest pro I ever met.

I sadly saw some of his last fights when he was in his 40's and practically homeless. Suchs that so many of these great fighters end up fighting on to long. He should have stopped after the Deleon fight.

 

Yeah those would have been good fights. He beat some good dudes in Evagalista, Mercardo, Lopez and of course Ali. Ali was certainly past his best but he still had enough to beat Sharvers, Young and Norton in the year before.

 

He was a solid pro that lost whenever he stepped up. Ali, Holmes, Spinks and Page all beat him. By no means am I implying that he was on the level of the guys you mentioned but he was solid when Leon fought him and I think at that point he had only lost to Ali.

Back to Leon, he was really last of the small 200 pound heavyweights and the last true swarmer that I can remember winning a heavyweight belt until Ruiz beat Johsua. Hell, he probably could have made 175 of he stayed dedicated.

 

He was probably at his best in 76' when he won gold. I had posted his gold medal match on here last week. If you haven't seen it yet, it was a phenomenal fight where he was a big underdog going into it. He was still in the Marines and a very focused fighter. Truly one of the most entertaining fighters but was really done just a few years into his pro career.